Substance Abuse, Drug Addiction ? Alcoholism, Heroin, Cocaine, Meth-Amphetamine: A Practice Contributing to HIV Infection in Women by Rachel Hayon, MPH
Intravenous Drug Use (IDU) is known to be a major risk for HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) infection. Drug use is also responsible for about 60% of hepatitis C cases [1.
IDU can also put the user's partner at higher risk to contract HIV/AIDS.
The percentage of AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) cases among women in the United States has more than tripled, from 7% in 1985 to 23% in 1998 [2. Close to two-thirds of the reported female AIDS cases have been found among African-Americans women and 37% of these cases were contracted heterosexually.
Today women are the largest growing population of infected individuals.
Intravenous drug use with needle sharing is known to be a popular mode of HIV infection for women [3. In fact in 2003, approximately one-third of AIDS cases in the United States were associated with the sharing of injection equipment among drug users [4.
In addition to drug use behaviors, there are many reasons that women are more of a target of the HIV/AIDS virus.Depending on what the cultural background of an individual is, he or she will be at higher risk for HIV infection.
For instance, in Hispanic or African-American culture, men are still considered to be the dominant individual in the relationship.
As such, women may not feel that they are in the position to demand that their partners use a condom [5.
They are also not entitled to ask their partners who they have had sexual relationships with prior to the current relationship or even during it [5.
In regards to this, since in most Latin families, homosexuality is not an accepted practice, men will still engage in MSM (men who have sex with men) sexual behaviors and will keep a girlfriend or wife on the side [6. Because of such behaviors, heterosexual transmission is a considerably large transmission route.
In addition, just from a biological standpoint, HIV transmission is up to 19 times more efficient from men to women than the reverse [7.Stopping HIV transmission, especially among women can prove to be problematic for several reasons.
For those women that are substance users, the majority tend to be poorly educated in general and specifically about their sexual and reproductive health. They are also often times, dependant on a man for financial support and not willing to change their behaviors or demand that their partner change his [8.
In fact, a recent study which examined the relationship between partner violence and sexual risk behaviors in a sample of predominately African-American and Hispanic women found that nearly half of the participants said they had been abused by a partner in the past.
It was discovered that abused women were five times more likely than unabused women to have reported an STD (sexual transmitted disease) and were four times more likely to have engaged in sex with a risky sexual partner [9.The effect of risky sexual behavior for women is two fold, as women can pass the virus on not only to other sexual partners but to their children as well.
There are country wide prevention programs trying to assist pregnant mothers, so that their children have the option of living an HIV free life.
Ways to prevent transmission include: prenatal care such as HIV counseling and testing as well as zidovudine (AZT) treatment for infected mothers and their children. AZT is a drug which can reduce the viral load, or amount of the virus in the individuals system.
It can prevent transmission of the virus from mother to child if taken during pregnancy [10. Without intervention, a 25% mother-to-infant transmission rate would result in the birth of an estimated 1,750 HIV-infected infants annually in the United States, with lifetime medical costs of $282 million. The estimated annual cost of perinatal prevention in the United States is $67.6 million [10.
This investment prevents 656 HIV infections and saves $105.6 million in medical care costs alone - a net cost-savings of $38.1 million annually. HIV transmission from mother to child during pregnancy, labor, and delivery or by breast-feeding has accounted for 91% of all AIDS cases reported among U.S. children. The best ways to prevent infection in children are to prevent infection in women and to encourage early prenatal care that includes HIV counseling and testing [10. Having said this, the hardest population to reach are women who use drugs during pregnancy since they are the least likely to get prenatal care.
Increased efforts are needed at all levels (community, state, national) to integrate substance abuse and HIV prevention activities and assist pregnant women in accessing needed services to improve their own health and the health of their babies [10.
When looking at the HIV from this angle, it is apparent that substance abuse treatment can also be a key factor in reducing transmission rates. Statistics show that IDUs who do not enter treatment are up to six times more likely to become infected with HIV than individuals who enter and remain in treatment.
Stopping substance abuse can affect many aspects of the IDUs life [1.
This includes improving their health, their ability to get and keep a job, their family stability and also should reduce their involvement with crime.
If used appropriately, substance abuse treatment is as effective as treatments for diabetes, asthma and other chronic illnesses [1.Long-term addiction treatment and rehabilitation can stop HIV transmission rates and can also save everyone concerned a great deal of money.
$1 invested in treatment reduces the costs of drug-related crime, criminal justice costs, and theft by $4 to $7. The average cost of methadone maintenance treatment is $4,700 as opposed to $18,700 for one year of incarceration per person.
When health care costs are added in, total savings can exceed costs by a ratio of 12 to 1.
Substance abuse and HIV prevention are closely related and for those populations, such as women, that need the most assistance stopping drug use can be the solution to more than one problem and can save more than one person in the process.
More information on drug and alcohol rehabilitation can be found at http://www.drugrehabcenter.com, http://www.drug-alcohol-rehab.net and http://www.helpaddicts.com.1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2002). Substance abuse treatment for ???injection drug users: a strategy with many benefits. Atlanta, GA: Author.???2.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1999). HIV/AIDS surveillance: U.S. ???AIDS Cases. Atlanta, GA: Author.3.
Update: AIDS among women- United States, 1994. MMWR Morbidity and Mortality ???Weekly Report 1995; 44-81-4.4. Stancliff, S. Agins, B., Burris, S. (2003).
Syringe access for the prevention of blood ???borne infections among injection drug users. BMC Public Health. 3(1): 37.5. Mason, H. R.
C., Marks, G., Simoni, J. M., Ruiz, M. S. & Richardson, J. L.
(1995). Culturally sanctioned secrets: Latino men's nondisclosure of HIV infection to family, friends, and lovers. Health Psychology, 14, 6-12. 6. Szapocznik, J.
(1995). Research on disclosure of HIV status: Cultural evolution finds ???an ally in science. Health Psychology, 14(1), 4-5. 7. Padian, NS., Shilboski, SC.
Jewell, NR. (1991). Female-to-male transmission of ???human immunodeficiency virus. JAMA, 266: 1664-7.8. Jenkins, SR.
(2000). Introduction to the special issue: Defining gender, relationships ???and power. Sex Roles. 42: 467-493. 9.
El-Bassel, N., Schilling, Rl, Irwin, K., Faruque, S., Von Bargen, J., Serrano, Y., & Edlin, B. (1997). Sex trading and psychological distress among women recruited from the streets of Harlem. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 66-70.10. Centers for Disease Control.
(1999). Status of Perinatal HIV Prevention:???U.S. Declines Continue. Atlanta, GA: Author.Contact Information:Jerry Goldfarb305-945-8384e-mail protected from spam botsHOLISTIC ADDICTION TREATMENT PROGRAM.
SignOn: A Sign Language Interpreting Resource Launches New Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) Service
Seattle, WA (ContentDesk) October 17, 2005 -- SignOn Inc, (http://www.SignOnASL.com) a leader in American Sign Language interpreting, has launched a comprehensive Video Relay Interpreting (VRI) service providing Sign Language Interpreting for deaf people throughout the United States and Canada.The SignOn's VRI service is an easy-to-use on-demand system that uses the latest Internet videoconferencing and web-based technologies to access sign language interpreting services without an interpreter onsite. Instead of having an interpreter physically present with the deaf and hearing parties, the interpreter is located at one of SignOns offices and facilitates communication remotely via video.Individuals, companies, hospitals, schools and state and federal agencies can now easily fulfill the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and No Child Left Behind
by subscribing to the SignOn's VRI service. This new...
Hearing aids > SignOn: A Sign Language Interpreting Resource Launches New Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) Service
Understanding HIV and AIDS
HIV and AIDS are some of those diseases, where precaution is the best treatment. Let's go exploring.
HIV
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a retrovirus. It was first discovered in early 1980s. It affects a type of white blood cell (T Cell). Once this virus enters inside the body it completely covers the T Cell and start making a number of copies of itself.
It fails the immune system of the body, which causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Currently, there is no vaccine available to prevent HIV infection.
AIDS
When HIV virus weakens the immune system of the body, the person is unable to fight the infection. This life threatening infection caused by HIV is called AIDS. It spread through human. It affects the normal functioning of immune system of the body.
Currently, there is no treatment for AIDS is available. However there is a significant improved HIV medication helping HIV positive people to live their life longer...
Understanding HIV and AIDS
Hearing aids > Understanding HIV and AIDS
AIDS 101- What You Absolutely Need to Know
IntroductionDue both to the stigma and the awareness program attached with it, now AIDS has become a common household term. There are very less people who actually know that the exact word is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS in short. Because of the morbidity and mortality attached and also because of the ignorance about it there are lots and lots of myths against this deadly disease. This alone shows the anxiety and concern of the general mass.HistoryThe virus for this disease is thought to have transmitted from simian monkeys in the forests of Africa to humans and from there it traveled to USA and different countries. It was brewing in the bodies till in 1981 in USA the Center for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) recognized it for the first time and reported that there was an unexplained occurrence of an unusual pneumonia in a few homosexuals.
Soon the disease was to be found in intravenous drug users. But it was only in 1983 that the causative virus was isolated...
AIDS 101- What You Absolutely Need to Know
Hearing aids > AIDS 101- What You Absolutely Need to Know
Acne and Green Tea
Green tea is used by the Chinese as a traditional medicine to treat many ailments including acne and to improve general well-being. But does it provide an effective herbal alternative to modern medication?The answer seems to be ?Yes'.
There are only two herbal treatments that are known to be effective in treating acne and green tea is one of them.In a recent study by Jennifer Gan-Wong, M.D. a green tea cream was trailed against a 4% benzoyl peroxide solution on people suffering with moderate to severe acne. The results from this research study showed that green tea was just as good in treating acne as the benzoyl peroxide.But benzoyl peroxide dries out skin causing itching or allergic reactions.
Unlike green tea that has the added advantages of natural anti-bacterial properties and antioxidants, particularly epigallocatechin gallate which is 200 times more powerful than vitamin E at fighting free radicals. Green tea also helps to reduce inflammation, hormonal activity...
Acne and Green Tea
Hearing aids > Acne and Green Tea
Emma? Email Marketing Awards Free Accounts to 25 Community Non-Profits
Emma?, the Web-based e-mail marketing service, has announced that 25 charitable groups will be awarded free e-mail marketing accounts for 2005 as part of its 'Emma Twenty-Five' initiative designed to promote social responsibility and honor the charitable work being done by Emma customers around the country.The 25 honorees were selected from a list of more than 80 deserving groups nominated by Emma customers. As part of the program, Emma will donate full-featured e-mail marketing accounts, custom design templates and a budget of 5,000 emails a month for a full year, and the sponsoring Emma customer will work closely with its non-profit to put all of it to good use. Emma's staff and customers hope that by providing these groups with the tools to easily reach out to their respective audiences, they'll be able to raise more awareness and generate more activity. Already, the initiative has received tremendous response from everyone involved, and Emma expects to offer the program again next...
Emma? Email Marketing Awards Free Accounts to 25 Community Non-Profits
Hearing aids > Emma? Email Marketing Awards Free Accounts to 25 Community Non-Profits
HIV/AIDS & Other STD
STD-Sexually Transmitted Disease ? are transmitted through sexual contact. STD -are generally divided into two categories, bacterial and viral. Bacterial infections are relatively easy to cure if detected early. Viral infections are technically incurable but the symptoms are controllable if detected early.
Having a sexually transmitted disease (STD) can increase a person's risk of becoming infected with HIV.
STD treatment reduces a person to get HIV infection.
The human immunodeficiency virus HIV, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS and sexually transmitted disease STD are one of the main concern today. The patients affected by them are quite in number and alarming as it is infectious. From one person to the other, from a mother to a baby anybody anywhere can get the virus.
It is estimated by the Joint United Nations Program that there are over 34 million people worldwide affected with HIV/AIDS. Out of them only few are aware of their being infected...
Hearing aids > HIV/AIDS & Other STD
AIDS Community Organization Lifts Two-year Boycott of Abbott Laboratories
HOUSTON, TX (ContentDesk) December 10, 2005 -- The Center for AIDS Information & Advocacy, a local HIV/AIDS organization is lifting its two-year boycott of Abbott Laboratories and is resuming normal relations. The boycott was part of a broad effort across the nation by community organizations, physicians, and other groups and included refusal to attend Abbott-sponsored programs, participate in company invitational meetings, accept financial donations, and more. The efforts against Abbott also included several lawsuits, on-site protests, and even a hearing at the US Food and Drug Administration in 2004 to consider releasing ritonavirs patent. The boycott began in December 2003 in the wake of Abbotts price increase, more than 400 percent, for its HIV/AIDS drug ritonavir (Norvir). The price increase was announced by Abbott on December 3two days after World AIDS Day.
With ritonavir being an essential AIDS drug working as a booster agent for all but one of the currently marketed...
AIDS Community Organization Lifts Two-year Boycott of Abbott Laboratories
Hearing aids > AIDS Community Organization Lifts Two-year Boycott of Abbott Laboratories
DIGIKIDS? Child ID Program Aids Quick Recovery of Missing Children Using Information Technology
In response to the more than 2,000 missing children reported in the United States each day, DIGIKIDS? recently unveiled its new Child ID Kit that allows parents to provide law enforcement officials, the media, the NCMEC and other agencies with two high-resolution photos along with medical and identifying information to aid in recovery efforts. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), far too many parents are not prepared to act in a missing child emergency. Most importantly, DIGIKIDS? Quick Response? software can get this vital information into the hands of authorities anywhere in the world within minutes.According to the NCMEC, acting within the first 20 minutes following a disappearance is absolutely critical. By utilizing DIGIKIDS? business card-sized CD-ROM (easily carried in a pocket or purse)...
DIGIKIDS? Child ID Program Aids Quick Recovery of Missing Children Using Information Technology
Hearing aids > DIGIKIDS? Child ID Program Aids Quick Recovery of Missing Children Using Information Technology
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